Here is another one of my favourite reminiscences concerning Sri Bhagavan. This little gem appeared in the Mountain Path 1989, Pg 49, titled “Maharshi in our Midst …”. The anecdote was recorded by Sri M. J. Kalyanarama Iyer but originally related by Sri G. Venkatramier, a renowned poet and scholar, and a contemporary of Sri Ganapati Muni.
Personally, I have found this little instruction from Bhagavan enormously helpful. Every time I struggle with the mind, I remind myself of this anecdote and then feel as if Bhagavan is telling me to carry on regardless, to try harder to "duck under the wave" …
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“Maharshi In Our Midst …”
This happened during the early Skandasramam days. Sri Bhagavan is seated in His usual place on one side of the verandah. Sri Easwara Swami is seated nearby. Sri Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni is a little distance away while G. Venkatramier is seated near Him.
Venkatramier addressed Sri Bhagavan thus: “Whichever way one turns, one finds that the mind has to be subdued. We are told it has to be controlled. Can this really be done when on the one hand the mind is an entity not easily grasped and on the other one continues to have worldly worries?”
Kavyakantha moved his head slightly towards Venkatramier as if registering surprise that he should have chosen to enquire about something quite general.
Sri Bhagavan remained silent for a while and then said: “Hmm. A person who has never seen an ocean must make a trip to it to know about it. Standing there before the huge expanse of water, this person may wish to bathe in the sea. Of what use is it if, seeing the roaring and rolling of the waves, he were to just stand there thinking, ‘I shall wait for all this to subside. When it does, I shall enter it for a quiet bath just as in the pond back home?’ He has to realize either by himself or by being told, that the ocean is restlessness and that it has been so from the moment of Creation and will continue likewise till Pralaya (Destruction). He will then resolve to learn to bathe in it, as it is. He may wade into it by and by, and perhaps, through prior instruction, learn to duck under a wave and let it pass over him. He would naturally hold his breath while doing so. Soon he would be skilled enough to duck, at a stretch, wave after wave, and thus achieve the purpose of bathing without coming to grief. The ocean may go on and though in it, he is free from its grip.”
Bhagavan then added, after a pause, “So too here.”
